Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

In his previous bestsellers, Who Will Tell the People and Secrets of the Temple, William Greider laid bare the inner workings of American politics and the Federal Reserve, revealing how they often work against the interests of the majority. Now, in The Soul of Capitalism, Greider examines how the greatest wealth-creation engine in the history of the world is failing most of us, why it must be changed, and how intrepid pioneers are beginning to transform it.

Public outrage over crooked corporate officers, the looting of pension funds, the defrauding of stockholders, and the wholesale firing of hardworking employees has reached a new high. But Greider argues that our anger has deeper roots, as he analyzes how our relentless pursuit of unprecedented affluence has eroded family life, eaten away at our sense of personal and professional security, corroded our communities, impoverished our spiritual lives, and devastated our natural environment. The solution, he contends, will come not from activist government, the politics of the past, or more government regulation (the usual response of liberals), but from a fundamental realignment of power that, he promises, is already under way on many fronts.

The Soul of Capitalism shows us where to find the leverage for changing the system. Reformers appear in surprising variety, from conservative business managers to small-town civic leaders, social agitators and ecologists, labor leaders and farmers. Greider offers many up-and-running examples -- of workers becoming owners, of pension funds withdrawing their capital from polluters, of small companies learning how to operate profitably while caring for employees and the environment, of governments reforming their public works.

Brilliantly perceptive and sweeping in its ambition, The Soul of Capitalism is also hardheaded and practical as one of our most eloquent populist spokesmen assures us why we are not powerless. Greider illustrates how American capitalism can be aligned more faithfully and obediently with what people want and need in their lives, with what American society needs for a healthy, balanced, and humane future. He proves that it is within our power to reinvent capitalism to make it work for us.

Review

"[H]is enthusiasm for the project keeps this argument moving along at a brisk pace, and convincingly. Though it lacks the thrills, chills, and spills of his Secrets of the Temple, Greider's latest does a good job of arguing for a future economics with a human face." Kirkus Reviews

Review

"[Gredier's] overall framework is fresh and valuable, and his reporting on specific efforts is resourceful and illuminating." Publishers Weekly

Synopsis

The author of the acclaimed bestseller Who Will Tell the People?shows us how to reinvent capitalism so that it works not only for profits but for people, too. The recent contagion of financial fraud and corporate bankruptcies confirms what we already know  something is terribly wrong with American capitalism.

Our discontents are not just with dishonest CEOs, but with what our relative affluence costs us in family stress, the quiet desperation of struggling to make ends meet, and the social and environmental destruction of our communities and natural surroundings. Greider says the answer is not more government regulation, but a fundamental realignment of power.

In Who Will Tell the People? and Secrets of the Temple, Greider exposed how American politics and the Federal Reserve really work  and for whom (not the people). Here he does the same for American capitalism. And he shows us where to find the leverage for changing the system. He offers many successful examples  workers becoming owners; pension funds withdrawing their capital from polluters; small companies functioning profitably; government reforming public works. Greider assures us that it is within our power to make the economy work for us.

Synopsis

Includes bibliographical references (p. 341-350) and index.

About the Author

William Greider is the bestselling author of five previous books, including One World, Ready or Not (on the global economy), Who Will Tell the People (on American politics), and Secrets of the Temple (on the Federal Reserve). A reporter for forty years, he has written for The Washington Post and Rolling Stone and has been an on-air correspondent for six "Frontline" documentaries on PBS. Currently the national affairs correspondent for The Nation, he lives in Washington, D.C.